Film-locking device for moving-picture machines.



P. F.- mus. FILM LOCKING DEVICE FOR MOVING PICTURE MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 21. 1-914.

Patented Apr. 9, 1918.

PHILIP F. KRUG, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

FEE-LOCKING DEVICE FOR MOVING-PICTURE MACHINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr.9, 1918.

Application filed May 27, 1914. Serial No. 841,191.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIP F. KRUG, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of New York, borough of Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Film-Locking Devices for Moving-Picture lVIachines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates in general to a moving picture machine which may be either the camera or the projector and more specifically relates to the means for maintaining the film in engagement with the film feeding and guidin means.

' Among the o jects of the invention are to provide for a quick threading of the film through the instrument and to provide a unitarycontrol for locking the film engag ing members in their film engaging and in their film disengaged positions.

Another object is. to provide an economically constructed form of machine support and still another object of the invention. is to provide an inexpensive form of replaceable film bearing members in the aperture plate and rear ate.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a means for automatically forming the upper loop in the film while threading the same through the machine.

' Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one form of mechanism embodying the invention and it also consists in certain new and novel features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a moving picture machine including a preferred embodiment of 'my invention and.

showing the film engaging members in operative position in full lines and in unlocked position in dash lines;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the rear side of the aperture late and gate and taken on the line 22 0 Fig. 1 looking in the direction indicated by the arrow; and

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view taken through the rear gate and taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

In the is shown a stand for the machine which comprises a top plate 1 having sockets 2 in which are inserted, preferably threaded, tubular legs 3, which are preferably three in number to form a threepoint support. A table 4 is pivoted to the plate 1 by means of the connection 5 which includes overlapping lugs 6 to prevent. transverse movement and to permit a rocking movement of the table 4 and its supported parts in a vertical plane so as to adjust the position of the light from the machine on the display screen. The tilted table is locked in ad'usted position by means of the set screws and 8 which .are threaded through the plate 1 on opposite sides of the pivotal connection and bear on the underside of the table.

The machine 9 is fixed to the table and includes the casing 10 which contains the driving mechanism connecting the several film feeding means usual with devices of this character. The aperture plate 11 projects laterally from one side of the casing and the several film engaging members usual with devices of this character also'project from the casing parallel to the aperture plate. These members include the feed sprocket 12 flanged guide rollers 14 and 15 disposed respectively above and below the aperture 16 in the plate 11, the intermittent f beater feed mechanism 17 and take-up sprocket 18. A frame 19 is pivotally mounted on the pin 20 and has a grooved roller 21 journaled therein on the pin 22 which roller is adapted to bear on the film 23 to maintain the same in operative engagement with the feed sprocket 12, and is maintained in resilient engagement with the feed sprocket by means of the spring 24. A similar frame 25 is pivoted to the casing 10 below the take-up sprocket. 18 and carries a roller frame 26 freely pivoted thereto. This roller frame has a pair of slightly spaced apart parallel grooved rollers 27 and 28 adapted to engage the film at two points to maintain the same in engagement with the take-up sprocket 18 under the tension of the Spring 29.

-A rocking frame 30 has its lower end pivoted to the casing 10 by means of the pin 31 and has its upper end pivoted to opposite sides of the rear gate 32 intermediate the length of the sides of the gate. This gate bears on the film between the rollers 14 and 15 to maintain the film flat against the aperture plate as is usual-with devices I of the strip.

fiat on the plate and gate with-the" convex I 'bearings strips These 7 bearmg strips are side engagaing the same and the portion of the gate and plate adjacent the ends of the pockets 35 to contain the loops 34 and pins v jacent portions of to the casing 36 are passed through the loops34 and ad the gate and plate. A loop forming roller 37 is mounted upon the upper end of a lever 38 pivoted at 39 10' and'is arranged to move gravitationally into engagement with the upper roller 14 between its flanges to maintain the film in position against this upper roller. ,The inner arm 40 of the lever 38 constitutes a stop for engaging the bearing 41 of the pin 20 thereby to maintain the roller 37 in its position engaging the roller 14. The upper side of the arm 40 constitutes a bearing for. an extension of the pin 22 during its sliding movement when the frame 19 is swung on its pivot 20. The roller 37 moves about the pivotal connection 39 transversely of the path of the film between the feed sprocket 12 and aperture plate 11 to form the upper loop 42.

A bell-crank lever 43 is pivoted on the pin 44 projecting from the casing 10 and is rotated about the pin by means of the key 45, A J shaped connecting arm 46 has its short extension pivoted to one arm of the lever 43 and the other end connected to the frame 30 by means of the pin and slot connection 47. A similar shaped connecting arm 48 connects the other arm of the lever 43 with the frame 19, the pin 22 constituting the pin of the pin and slot connection 49 and a similar connecting arm 50 connects the last mentioned lever arm with the frame 25.

The gate 32 may be held against the aperture plate by gravity but preferably the-pin 31 has a coiled spring 51 which maintains a the gate engaging the film with the required tension.

' In operation, and with the several film' engaging members in their unlocked position shown in the dash lines of Fig. 1 and with the loop forming roller inits raised operative position, the film is lapped under the feed sprocket, over the loop forming roller, across the rollers at. the upper and lower end of the aperture plate and is then looped S- hape about the intermittent feeding device and finally lapped about the underside of the take-up. sprocket. Rotating the -key anti-clockw-ise will move the several connecting arms attached thereto out of upper arms are which the key aperture opening in the of relatively.

. in full lines in Fig. 1. The releasi are recessed to provide their ,locked positions, in. which the. two

hooked over the pin on arms and the sprocket rollers and gate these rollers and ate are capable of a slight movement in ependent o the key actuated means whereby said members may move relative to the fixed film and guiding means to permit portions of the film of irregular thickness to pass between these members.

Rotating the key clockwise will draw the sprocket rollers and gate simultaneously into a locked position disengaged from the film and the pin carrying the feed sprocket roller will bear upon the lever carrying the loop-forming roller to form the upper loop.

To replace the bearing strips on the aperture plate and the gate the pin engaging the 100 at each end is withdrawn and a new spring bearing strip is inserted in place.

By means of a device of this character it is mounted. Releasing these is possible to control the several film engaging members from a single manually con-- trolled member and it is not necessary to disconnect the several parts in order to thread the film through the instrument as is usual with devices now known. The sev- .eral film feeding and guiding means are open at' one end thereby facilitating the threading of the film and all of the gearing and driving mechanism is inclosed within ,the casing supporting the film engaging operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit the invention.

Having thus describedmy invention, I

' claim:

1. In a moving picture machine, the com- .bination with a supportprovided "with a film guiding means, of a rear gate pivoted to the support and movable toward and from said guiding means to retain thefilm' will be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its in its path of movement therebetween, means slight movement independent of the gate moving means, and an operating member engaging sald means at a pomt spaced from said gate for operating the same.

2. In a moving picture machine, a support having film engaging elements project-' ing from one side thereof, said elements including feed and take-up sprockets and film guiding means, one for each of the sprockets, said film guiding means being rockably mounted on the support and adjacent their respective coacting sprockets and arranged for mo ement to and from the sprockets, the ends of the elements opposite the support being free whereby the film may be conveniently lapped about the elements by inserting a portion of the film transversely of its path of travel into operative position relative to said elements and a manually controlled. means for moving said film guiding means in the direction to move the film into engagement with the sprockets.

3. In a moving picture machine, the combination with a film feed sprocket and an aperture plate, of a movable upper loop forming member adapted in one position to engage the film between the feed sprocket and aperture plate to form the upper film loop and guide rollers coacting with said member to maintain the film in operative position relative to the sprocket and aperture plate when said member is withdrawn from the formed loop in the film.

4. In a moving picture machine, a support, film engaging elements projecting from said support, said elements each including a fixed member and a movable member adapted to contain the film therebetween, the outer ends of said fixed members being free whereby the film may be readily inserted into operative position and a unitary control pivotally connected with each of said movable members for moving the same relative to the fixed members whereby the film may be held in operative position relative to the said elements.

l l l 5. In a moving picture machine, a sup port, film engaging elements carried by said support, said elements each including a fixed member and a movable member adapted to contain the film therebetween, a unitary control loosely connected with each of said movable members for moving the same relative to said fixed members, and means for locking said controls.

. 6. In a moving picture machine, a feed sprocket and a take-up sprocket, each having a roller coacting to maintain the film in engagement therewith, a key, and a separate controlling connection between said key and each of said coacting rollers, said connections being movable relative to each other under the action of said key.

7 In a moving picture machine, a feed sprocket and a take-up sprocket, each having a roller coacting to maintain the film in engagement therewith, a key rotatable about a fixed axis, connections between said key and each of said coacting rollers whereby said rollers may be moved simultaneously into a position disengaged from the film by the actuation of said key and resilient means tending to maintain said rollers in operative position relative to their respec-' tive sprockets, said rollers each having a slight movement away from their sprockets independent of said key controlled connections.

8. In a moving picture machine, the com bination with an aperture plate, means for guiding the film relative thereto and a gate adapted to maintain the film in engagement with the plate, said gate and plate movable relative to each other to separate the same, loop forming means designed to be moved to a plurality of positions and adapted in one of said positions to engage the film while said gate and plate are separated, a key for separating said gate and plate to permit the insertion of a film therebetween and a connection between said loop forming means and said key to move said means from one of its, positions into its loop forming posit1on.

9. In a device of the class described, a film engaging member, means engaging said member for moving the same into a set position, said means having a loose connection with the member so as to have a further movement idle with reference to said member and past its member-setting-position.

10. In a device of the class described, a plurality of film engaging means, a single key pivotally mounted for rotation about a fixed axis and a plurality of links, one for each of said means, connecting said key and means, certain of said links including a pin and slot connection whereby said key may have a movement free of said film engaging means.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 25th day of May, A. D. 1914.

PHILIP F. KRUG.

Witnesses:

M. J. COOPER, W. S. ORTON. 

